30th Birthday Haul

Welp, I'm now officially as old as Space Ghost claimed to be in Coast to Coast. Kinda surreal, not gonna lie. Celebrations yesterday were pretty relaxed (it being a Monday and all), but we still enjoyed a nice little family gathering with a friggin' awesome cake:

Courtesy of a combination of my Sister's hard work and some edible printing. Having the same birth year as one of your personal favorite gaming franchises definitely has certain advantages.

Anyhoo, let's get on to the gifts!

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury 

New Pokémon Snap

Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time (Switch)

NEO: The World Ends With You (Switch)

This year's gaming haul places the spotlight on LONG awaited sequels that you probably wouldn't have expected by a long shot just a few years back. (Well, except for 3D World. I definitely awaited the port for a good while, though.)

Only jumped into NEO so far (RPGs are kinda my thing and I adored the original), but just knowing that I'll still have one of my favorite 3D Mario games (complete with a bonus adventure), a Crash game with a super appealing cartoony aesthetic plus playable Dingodile, and a frigging POKÉMON SNAP SEQUEL to enjoy once I finish it is brain-meltingly exciting.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The IDW Collection Volume 11

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The IDW Collection Volume 12

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe Volume 3: Karai's Path

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe Volume 4: Home

Ghostbusters: Spectral Shenanigans Volume 2

Ghostbusters: Crossing Over

My reading material for this year sees my return to IDW's fantastic TMNT books with both my first offerings from their hardcover compilations (believe it or not, it was actually FAR cheaper than going for the individual trade paperbacks featuring these same stories) and the remaining entries from their Universe spin-off book that I still needed for my collection.

 

Also along for the ride are a couple of IDW's Ghostbusters books (both the last piece of Volume 2 of the ongoing that I needed and the Crossing Over mini-series) that officially complete my collection of Dan Shoening and Erik Burnham's collaborations up through 2018. I'm looking forward to seeing how an interdimensional portal created to get the Ninja Turtles back home (yes really, read these) leads to just about every 'buster in the franchise at that point (including the sprites from the New Ghostbusters 2 NES game) coming together to avert catastrophe like they do. It'll be the perfect appetizer for Afterlife!

Pokémon DP: Sinnoh League Victors The Complete Season 

Pokémon Adventures: Black 2 and White 2 Volume 2

Pokémon Adventures: Black 2 and White 2 Volume 3

It's Pokémon's 25th and Snap isn't the only new treat I've got to enjoy from the franchise! First, the final DP set officially completes the Sinnoh arc on my DVD shelf. Then, one of my personal favorite manga series returns after a bit of a hiatus (long story) to present the climax of Black and White's two-arc story. Looking forward to completing Ash's Gen 4 journey before my personal revisit on the Switch this holiday as well as finally getting back to collecting Adventures regularly.

Transformers Generations WFC: Kingdom Voyager Class Optimus Primal

Transformers Generations WFC: Kingdom Voyager Class Dinobot

Last but not least, in addition to the very nice cake (as well as a fun evening out to see Black Widow), my Sis got me these two beautiful beasts. I don't really talk about Transformers much here, but I'm a HUGE fan of the Beast Era of the brand, so to see Hasbro putting out modern versions of the Beast Wars cast that are pretty darn accurate to the way the characters appeared in the show (barring some more realistic touches to the beast modes) is a dream come true, especially in the case of my favorite character, Dinobot. His beast mode transformation is a bit finicky, but robot mode is just impeccable, blowing the 10th Anniversary version of the original figure that I owned previously completely out of the water. It feels so good to have a mostly-complete (barring Cheetor) initial Maximal cast standing all cool on my shelf together. A perfect way to celebrate 25 years of Beast Wars. (Yep, another Anniversary. When it rains, it pours.)

That should about do it for this year! Not exactly sure when the next post will be, but you can expect at least one before the holidays roll around. Until next time.

28th Birthday Haul

Welp, another Birthday has come and gone and I'm still a bit tired. Spent most of yesterday in town celebrating with Ice Cream and Spider-Man: Far from Home, but it always feels really nice to get home and just lounge for a bit. Anyway, enough preamble, let's get to my Birthday goodies!

Funko Pop! Games Howard the Duck (Contest of Champions)

This first gift's a bit special. Y'see, I actually got this guy back in June when me and my Sister were stocking up for OMGcon. I saw this at Walmart and was, of course, in awe at a Pop figure of Howard the Duck in a mech suit, but also a bit conflicted to spend my con funds on it. My Sister, being as fantastic as she is, decided to grab it for me as an early Birthday gift. (That also saved her from having to worry about getting a gift later.) Now Howard stands as the tallest figure on my Pop shelf. Appropriate.

Super Mario Maker 2

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled Nitros Oxide and Pin Bundle (Switch)

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled Dashboard Bobble

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order

Marvel's Spider-Man

Detective Pikachu

This year's crop of games is a good'n, with several that I've already sunk WAY too many hours into. (I may have gotten some things a bit early.) I'm completely addicted to unlocking things in Nitro-Fueled, I've completed MUA3's story (REALLY cool Final Boss, BTW) and am currently grinding Infinity Rifts to unlock Thanos, and I'm so enamored with swinging around and doing all the side stuff in Spidey PS4 that I've barely progressed in the story! (Already have all the Backpacks, Landmarks, Fisk Hideouts, and Towers.) Plus, that's not even getting to Mario Maker and Detective Pikachu, both of which I've barely scratched the surface of. (Well, mostly creation in Mario Maker's case. Already beat the Story Mode.) Heck, just Nitro-Fueled's Grand Prixs alone are going to make sure I'm busy for quite a while.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Blu-ray Combo)

Spider-Geddon

Spider-Geddon: Covert Ops

More Spidey fun straight from the Spider-Verse! Miles finally gets mainstream spotlight in his Academy Award-winning film from last year (still need to watch the Alternate Universe mode) while the Inheritors return to destroy the Web in the sequel to the original comic Spider-Verse. (The latter was an absolute must, considering PS4 Spidey plays a big role in it.) Also included is Covert Ops, a Spider-Geddon tie-in trade that I mostly got because Kaine leads a team in the first series included and I love me some Kaine. 

Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II

Bebop and Rocksteady Hit the Road

Sonic the Hedgehog Volume 2: The Fate of Dr. Eggman

Sonic the Hedgehog Volume 3: Battle for Angel Island

Wrapping things up with some books! IDW TMNT representation is a bit lighter this year to fit in the Spidey stuff, but I couldn't resist grabbing the sequel to the absolutely hysterical Bebop and Rocksteady Destroy Everything regardless. Batman/TMNT II was a series I held off on picking up mostly because I heard bad things, but when the animated movie and third series were announced, I figured there wasn't a better time to finally take the plunge. (It's okay. There's a lot less crazy fun crossover stuff, though, so it's pretty dull in comparison to the first series.) More IDW Sonic from my main man Ian Flynn rounds things out! (Lots of Sonic Heroes callbacks in this batch!)

That's all she wrote for this year's Birthday haul, but I'll have a couple things coming soon, so stay tuned to hear all about those!